Chevrolet Equinox Prices Paid and Buying Experience

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No unfortunatley they didnt. The dealer really didnt want to look at it in the first place. They asked me if I had a check engine light, and I told him no, and so he tells me " then there isnt anything wrong..if it isnt running right it will throw a code". The first time I brought it in, they ran it on the " machine" and it came out fine. The must have smelled it, since they told me it was bad gas...but I was smelling the smell when I still was running the first tank of gas from the dealer about a week or so after I had it. It IS an odd senario..and I cant understand why they wont look at it. I bet I could go out and find a new car on the lot that does NOT smell...but they insist is isnt the car and if it smells then it is bad fuel. Just crazy! I just loved how they show me the TSB, and in the TSB it tells the tech NOT to change out the cat. So, because of that, they wont even try. He told me, " we cant just start replacing perfectly good parts to see if one is not working". Nice.. :lemon: And I know this is not an Impala Forum, but the TSB applied to cars and light trucks, so wanted to pass it on.

MSRP $26815 (V6 with Pioneer system and 18" wheels - neither of which I wanted but they ream it down your throat). Dealer discount to $25500. Loyalty rebate of $1000, GM "points" of $4200. Tax of $300 (flat in this state). Out the door $20,700+ (including tax, tag, title). By my standards this is a lousy deal, but I think it's the best I could do on an Equinox right now. By comparison, my '02 Impala was purchased for $12,200 (from a $22,040 MSRP). Granted, $1000 more in GM dollars that time, but the dealer discount was also bigger and so was the rebate. I think it's only a matter of time before the rebates start showing up on these Equinoxes. The inventories are more plentiful now (than in 2010) and the sales will start slowing down (I think they already have). So if you don't need to buy right now, I'd sit back and wait a while. The pricing is going to soften up with better rebates and dealer pricing going forward.

On the Chevy website, it says that if you own a 99 GM car or newer, you are eligible for $1000 loyalty cash. Supposedly Saturns are included as a GM car. But a local dealer is saying no, full MSRP or nothing. Am I wrong?

Find another dealer. They are trying to squeeze you. And it isn't even them, it is GM, who takes the hit on incentives like that. But to ask for full MSRP is theft at this point in time considering the supply of Equinoxes has increased drastically. You should be able to get one for at least $1000 off MSRP, PLUS any incentives right now.

It's a '99 or new GM vehicle that qualifies. Saturn is a GM vehicle, so it qualifies. But dealerships will do anything to squeeze money out of you. When I bought my 2011, I knew I qualified for the $1000 Loyalty Rebate. But I let the salesman play his game asking me if I owned a '99 or newer GM car, then looking excited like I was going to get a great deal. The "deal" was $1000 off MSRP!

Nice try.

When making your offer, all you can do is use those bogus Edmunds numbers. I say they're bogus because they come from GM (they HAVE to), and why would GM be honest about what it really costs them to build their cars? What they WANT is for you to THINK you're getting a great deal. But the reality is those numbers HAVE to be padded and even if you nail a deal at invoice, the dealerships are STILL laughing all the way to the bank!

So go to Edmunds and build your car and calculate the invoice price including destination charge. It'll probably be around $1300 below MSRP. Make an offer BELOW this number (a few hundred bucks) and work UP to it. THEN deduct the $1000 Loyalty rebate from that (plus any other discounts you might have like GM 'dollars'). If you qualify for multiple discounts, say the USAA rebate (if it's still on), call GM first to find out which rebates can be used together. You don't want to be caught flat-footed at the dealership with a salesman giving you bad information (always in their favor, by the way).

As for the dealer you're dealing with ... try another salesman. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater just yet. And if you're a woman, I'd bring a man in with you. Just a guess, but I think women making deals by themselves end up with bad deals. You have to be nice with these people (a woman's strongpoint), but you can't let them run the show. And don't be afraid to walk out if you feel you're being pressured. The car you want is probably sitting at multiple dealerships. Get a price from all of 'em. It doesn't matter where you buy the vehicle, you can get it serviced at any dealership.

OH - forgot to mention .... make sure you ask UP FRONT what the dealership's stupid "doc fee" or "admin fee" is. This is a scam that dealerships started about 20 years ago. It's a way to tell you the vehicle costs $X, but then write you up for $X + fee. It's very common for these fees to be as much as $300 - $500 !!! And it's all legal. All the dealership has to do is charge everybody the same fee. But if you KNOW about it and factor it into the offer so you know what the ACTUAL cost of the vehicle is, it's no problem. If you can buy a $20,000 for $15,000, the "fee" can be $14,999 as long as the vehicle only costs $1.

Well, at least we wrote up the paperwork for it. Now the dealer has to look for one already built to our specifications. We *did* qualify for the GM loyalty cash for the 99 Saturn, did not qualify for the special financing (ALLY) for people with credit scores under 580. We also bought the extra protection for both the exterior and interior as we expect to keep the car for at least 7 years and, here in the great Northeast, winter road salt is a real concern.

Why don't you look for the car yourself? Personally, I think it's a lousy website, but you can go to Chevrolet.com, build your car, and search for it right there. The problem with this poorly-designed search engine is you specify EXACTLY the vehicle you want, and then it shows you stuff you didn't ask for (and tells you it's EXACTLY what you want)! The list ends up being longer than it should be, but it's better than nothing I guess. The other way to go is to search the dealer websites themselves (which is what I do). You can search for dealers within X miles from where you live then build yourself a list of hyperlinks to these dealers' websites that you can continuously search waiting for the car you want. I like going to the dealership where the vehicle is and buying it myself. When the dealer locates the car for you and transfers it to your local dealership, there's a cost involved for that and your car gets taken on a "joyride" by a salesperson. I like odometers with less than 20 miles on them. "Transferred" vehicles with hundreds of miles on them make me cringe.

Also, I lived in New England until the age of 29. Winter road salt causing cars to rust up there is a thing of the past. I would say it's been a non-issue for at least 20 years now. And keeping a car for 7 years is nothing. Even at 20,000 miles per year, that's only 140,000 total miles. Any car today can do that with little or no trouble if it is maintained correctly (and honestly) ... the latter being the difficult one ...

Well, the dealer just called and said they can't find one for our price. I did go on Chevy's site as you suggested and ran into the same problem you did. I didn't find one either, but it gave me a place to start. I will start going through individual dealer sites now.

Of course, I *could* take the upgrade for $1000 more, or wait for a new one to be built and delivered...

Here's another thing you can do: Go to autotrader.com and search by make, model, etc. ... but enter a SPECIFIC PRICE RANGE (as narrow as you can get it). You can also put in the search radius (as far as you're willing to drive to go get the vehicle). For example, after studying all the trim levels and options I could get on an 1LT Equinox, I came to the conclusion that the MSRP HAD TO BE $26,800 or $26,815 to have the equipment I wanted. If you zero in on a specific MSRP like this, you can use AutoTrader to find your car. One minor problem you'll find, however, is sometimes the dealer will list a vehicle MARKED DOWN (instead of at the MSRP). I found this was rare, but when it happened, I ended up with LT2's or LTZ's in my search list (because their MSRPs were, say - $28,000, marked down to the $26,800 range.

You can try cars.com, too, but it's not as good as autotrader because you can't search by specific price range. You get a LOT more junk in your search list. Also, keep in mind that the autotrader (or cars.com) searches won't show ALL the vehicles in your search radius, just those listed by dealers on these sites. I don't know what the participation level is with dealers on these sites, but I would bet it's pretty high. More exposure probably means more sales.

What exactly are you looking for? Are you looking for a unit that simply isn't built? For example, I REALLY wanted a "stripped" V6 with only Cargo Management added. No such animal. No dealer will ever have one. And I don't think you could even order it! If you want the V6, you're going to get the Pioneer stereo and 18" machined wheels reamed down your throat, whether you want these options or not. You can add the Cargo Management package onto this, but you can't take away the other two options.

I'm guessing you want the 4-cylinder engine. That's what everybody wants because the fuel economy is (supposedly) good. There's PLENTY of 4-cylinder Equinoxes out there (2011's). If you're looking for a V6, well, that's another story. I betcha the ratio of "4"s to "6"s on dealer lots is something like 100:1 !!

Just re-read your post. You say the dealer can't find one "for our price". Sounds like they're playing games with you. The car is probably out there, but they just won't transfer it and sell it to you at your price.

Find the car yourself, make the offer directly to the dealership that has the car, then go pick it up. Don't let them talk you into something more expensive that you don't really want. The car you want is very likely out there sitting on MULTIPLE dealer lots (in various colors). You just need to find ONE of them. But make offers on ALL OF THEM because some dealers are really tight-fisted (smaller dealers with 100-150 new cars) and others are less so (larger dealers with 200+ new cars). Also, keep in mind that if you ORDER one, you'll only get whatever incentives are ON at the time the vehicle arrives at the dealership, so that's tricky. I think it takes AT LEAST 6 weeks to build an Equinox right now, so chances are the current incentives will expire before the car arrives. You're better off finding vehicle on a dealer lot when you KNOW what the incentives are. The current incentives expire next on February 28th. The bonus right now is if you own or lease a '99 or newer GM vehicle, you can get an extra $1000 Loyalty rebate. So between the dealer's discount and the Loyalty rebate, that's around $2300 off MSRP for a 1LT (a lousy deal by my standards, but if you want an Equinox, that's the best you're gonna do right now).

Go to the GM site, put in your ZIP code and find all the dealers within 50 miles (or more if the list is scant). Then click on the dealer website button for each one and save the link in the address bar to a Word file. This will be your quick hyperlink list to search the individual dealer websites. I hope you have a high-speed internet connection because dial-up will bog down so bad you'll get discouraged and quit.

I am in the process of buying a 2011 Equinox. The best deal I have found is $500 over the dealer invoice after reduction of the holdback. For an 1LT this is a little more than $2000. So I can buy for about $1500 below MSRP, including doc fees. Not as good of a discount as we used to get (old days = 12%), but not bad. Also will get other factory incentives and my $4000 plus $500 bonus on the GM card. For everyone's benefit the dealer invoice less the holdback is as follows. All with $745 Destination fee:AWD LS MSRP = $25,240 Invoice less holdback = $23,280AWD 1LT MSRP = $26,405 Invoice less holdback = $24,352AWD 2LT MSRP = $28,465 Invoice less holdback = $26,247AWD LTZ MSRP = $30,815 Invoice less holdback = $28,410I don't have data for the FWD version, but the percentages will be about the same (8% with no discount on the destination fee).The markup on options is 12%.Plenty of vehicles available in Ohio region.Hope this helps.Joe

I'm starting to look for a new Equinox and most FWD LTZ's seem to come with a sun roof. I don't want a sun roof so am thinking of ordering one. Has anyone ordered from the factory? Can you get a better deal if you order one?

I ordered a cardinal red FWD LTZ with 6 cyl. and moonroof. My dealer did give me a better deal to order than take one out of stock. Unfortunately it was an 8 week wait. My wife loves the car and so do I.

We just purchased a 2011 Nox FWD 2LT, Mocha, with Two tone brown/black Leather, Roof, 18's and Power Liftgate. We paid $28,336, which was just under TMV ($28,357).

I would rate our overall experience a 6 out of 10, however, not due to our dealer or salesman, whom we both liked and would recommend again, but due to the industry practice known as "not giving a sh*t about what the customer wants, aka - usual practice."

We had wanted on one the Espresso Brown LTZ's, but of the dozen or so that were sitting on other dealers lots within our region, our dealer, looking to trade, was told all of them were "already sold" or "demo's." Our salesman admitted to me afterward that had I called as an off the street customer, I no doubt could have driven home in probably any one of those vehicles that day. The reason I didn't is because I wanted to remain loyal to the dealer, whom I felt was treating me fairly.

Perhaps it's not a "Chevy" issue, or maybe it's "the way it's always been done," but that's not an excuse. In the end, we the consumers didn't get what we really wanted because we remained loyal to our local dealer, and we didn't want to wait 6 or 8 weeks while the exact vehicle we wanted got built. Not sure why we should have to, especially if there's 12 copies lying around unsold at other dealers in the region.

We settled on the 2LT because my wife was getting tired of the process of seeing cars advertised for sale on dealer websites and cars.com, then having our dealer try to trade, and being told "sorry" it's not really for sale. Sloppy internet inventory management at best, downright lies at worst.

Chevy obviously has no control over the dealer to compel them to "play nice in the sandbox," with other dealers, and that's frustrating. Look, it's one thing if a dealer is sitting one a new ZR1, but come on, an Equinox? Can't they put a clause in the dealer contract that says, any vehicle with an MSRP under $50k you have to trade?

Oh, well, I think in the end we'll be happy, just as long as we can wring 26 or 28 MPG's out of it!

I hope this helps sombody out. I just purchased a Silver 2011 Chevy Nox, 4 cyl, LT2, Upgrades included: Chrome package, 18 inch aluminum wheels, power lift gate, and leather seats. OTD $28,230. This was hard to find with every dealer in my market having to get me a vehicle from out of state. I also got a 1 year maintenance plan which is really just 4 oil changes. Most dealers will sell the Nox at invoice or $100 dollars over invoice, due to the popularity of the vehicle and the short supply. Good Luck.

Hi,I am deciding on buying a 2011 Checy Equinox.LTZ 4 cyl 2 WD with no added features over the base LTZ. The vehicle has 2500 Miles on it. Best drive out price including tax license and registration offered was 28500$. Do you think this is a fair price to go ahead with the purchase?

There are over 2000 problem reports on this site from 2010/2011 Equinox owners. Most refer to serious issues with the 4 cylinder engine. Do yourself a favour, look through the reports and get an idea of what you could be into. The 6 cylinder engine seems to be a better bet.Good Luck

I went to Hendricks Auto mall in Durham, and test drove a 2012 LTZ equinox, they advertised credit union members got a 10% discount, and you get a discount for customer loyality, well they did not know what i was talking about and would only take 900.00 off the price of the vehicle, which was 28,500 including taxes and tags, I was not very happy with that price and left. I am still shopping around for the best deal. I would like the ltz with the chrome package and navigation

A reporter would like to speak to a couple who recently purchased a family car together. If you and your spouse have kids, purchased a car within the past six months and would like to share your story with a journalist, please send your daytime contact information at pr@edmunds.com no later than Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET.